INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 233 



The earliest explorer of the flora of Assam was Major Jen- 

 kinsj who transmitted to Sir W. Hooker very extensive collec- 

 tions. Wallich, Griffith, and McClelland visited the valley in 

 1835, to investigate the then recently discovered tea forests, 

 and Griffith returned to it more than once, so that its vegeta- 

 tion is now well known. Mrs. Mack and Mr. Simons have also 

 enriched the Hookerian Herbarium with many interesting As- 

 sam plants. The Ranunculus Chinensis, a well marked Chi- 

 nese species, occurs nowhere else in India; and Griffith has 

 pointed out a multitude of instances of similarity between the 

 floras of these two countries, in his able Keport on the culti- 

 vation of the tea-plant in the Transactions of the Agricultural 

 Society of Calcutta. The manufacture of tea has now been 

 carried on for some years with considerable success ia Upper 

 Assam, but the wild tea (whose abundance in the forests 

 of some parts led to the attempt in the first instance) is no 

 longer used for that purpose. Griffith has given a general ac- 

 count of the botany of the Assam valley, in his Report on the 

 tea cultivation already alluded to ; as also in his " Remarks 

 on a collection of plants made at Sadya, in Upper Assam," 

 published in the Calcutta Asiatic Society^s Journal, and in his 

 private journals. He mentions having collected 1500 species, 

 and computes that the whole flora must amount to at least 

 6000, — an estimate which, like all such made on similar data, 

 is greatly exaggerated, and probably doubles the actual amount. 



3. Naga and Khasia Hills. 



The mountain range which bounds Assam on the south is 

 known by a great diversity of names in difierent parts of its 

 course, according to the different tribes by whom it is in- 

 habited. The only part of the range which is well explored 

 is that called the Khasia hiUs, across which a good road runs, 

 by which a communication is kept up between Silhet and 

 Gowahatti, the capital of Assam. These mountains have 

 been explored botanically by Wallich and Griffith, and more 

 recently by ourselves. 



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